It Could Have Been Her, a review by Shelley

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It Could Have Been Her
Lisa Jewell

Publication Date: June 23rd, 2026
Simon & Schuster Canada | Atria Books
384 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org

Genre: General Fiction | Women’s Fiction

This isn’t a bad book by any means, and three stars isn’t a bad rating; for me, it means the book was good. This is the typical dual-timeline thriller with a bunch of unsavoury characters you love to hate. Most notably Jane from Don’t Let Him In (which was also three stars for me).

Twenty-five years in the past, Jane goes back to a secluded house with a strange man. She then hears a scream and something falling, and she flees. Now, middle-aged Jane is walking her dogs and comes across a terrier that is lost. She comes to find out that the girl who was staying nearby with the dog has vanished. Of course, Jane decides to drive the dog to its owner all the way to London. When she arrives there, it’s Thornwood—the same house where she heard the scream and the thud twenty-five years ago.

When the door is answered, a creepy man is there and says he knows nothing about the missing girl. Jane doesn’t believe him and notices a woman through the window. Jane doesn’t buy this guy’s answer; she knows the dog, the girl, and the house are all connected somehow, and she decides she is going to uncover all these secrets.

Jewell is a master at atmospheric, unsettling dread, but the uneven pacing (the middle was so very slow) and a very coincidental ending kept this book from being more than three stars for me. I enjoyed how creepy this book was, and Hampstead House is a character in its own right. There are lots of secrets in this tale, and Jane is like Gladys Kravitz, the nosy neighbour from Bewitched, but I was rooting for her even if she did seem a bit paranoid at times.

If you are looking for exciting twists or big surprises, you’ll be disappointed, as I found it a tad slow. It’s a solid, three-star, fun-for-the-weekend kind of read, but it’s not close to Jewell’s best work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.